Water district and partners seek feedback for San Francisquito Creek Flood Protection Project

The Santa Clara Valley Water District and partners from the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority (SFCJPA) will be hosting a series of meetings during the month of January to solicit community feedback that will be instrumental to evaluating design alternatives for the San Francisquito Creek Flood Protection Project upstream of Highway 101.

The SFCJPA will collect community feedback on the project elements it will evaluate in the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) being developed this year. Project partners will use public input to assess environmental issues of concern and narrow down analysis on alternatives for this section of the project that will provide flood protection and ecosystem restoration.

The project concept was first presented to the community in May 2013, after which the SFCJPA incorporated previous community input and analysis leading to five current alternatives:

No action on this section of the creek (required alternative)

Modifying Pope-Chaucer Bridge and widening creek channel sections

Constructing one more upstream detention basins

Constructing an underground bypass culvert

Constructing floodwalls along the channel

Flowing along U.S. Highway 101 and across two counties and the cities of Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Menlo Park, San Francisquito Creek has an extensive history of flooding. The most notable incident was in 1998 when El Niño winter storms damaged approximately 1,700 homes and businesses in the area, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in damages.

In June 2016, the SFCJPA began construction on the first phase of the San Francisquito Creek Project between the bay and Highway 101 along Palo Alto and East Palo Alto. When completed, along with the section upstream of Highway 101, the project will protect more than 5,700 homes and businesses.

The project is a partnership between multiple agencies including Santa Clara Valley Water District, SFCJPA, San Mateo County Flood Control District and cities of East Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Palo Alto, and Caltrans. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may provide funding for construction of the project for the future and is preparing a similar federal document, an Environmental Impact Statement, for the upstream section of the project.

The official Draft EIR notice (Notice of Prepration) is available for review here. Three meetings have been scheduled for the public to provide input. The first one, on Jan. 18, was attended by about 60 residents. Two more meetings are scheduled:

January 26, 2017 at 7 p.m. East Palo Alto City Hall Community Room, 2415 University Avenue, East Palo Alto, CA

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2 comments

Based on the reading above, it doesn’t appear that these meetings are related to the EIR for the Newell Bridge. Can you confirm? Could you provide the status of the Newell Bridge EIR and let me know when the meetings will begin to review it?

Hi Pamela, The City of Palo Alto is managing a separate environmental review for the replacement of the Newell Road Bridge. The project information, which includes upcoming community meetings, is available on the city’s website here: http://bit.ly/2jzw0c5. Thank you!